Holy shit, that Last of Us 2 trailer, huh? I mean, I’m not one to balk at violence in my media, but that was a lot of brutality in a very short amount of time. It felt just a bit gratuitous for a trailer. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that in game, in context, it’s par for the course (after all the first game didn’t exactly skimp on the gore), but for a teaser… I dunno.
Anyway, my wife and I broke down and watched This Is Us a couple of weeks ago, after constantly hearing about it from friends, and seeing the crying memes online and all that stuff over the past year (the memes were legit, by the way. Tears were shed).
So I guess it was floating around towards the top of my mind where it collided with The Last Of Us, and there you have it.
Gee did they watch Logan, Deadpool and think… “Wow, we really need to push this whol M rating thing…”
That was super intense, but lacked context enough to make sense of everything. Still. DAMMMMNNN
Tim, when you watched This is Us, and started getting hit by the feels, did you realize “Holy shit. This is me, now, as a father. The feels are hitting hard!” I found that once I had kids, I watch shows and movies, and if a kid suddenly is fatherless, or a dad’s kid dies for whatever reason, I get all feelsy. I used to never be like that. Then I became a dad…
100% Anything with kids and/or parents hits way harder now.
Hey Tim, if you want a real kick to the guts as a father, watch the new Detroit trailer. that shit messed up my day till i got home and saw my girls.
Me too. News articles hit me the worst. I’m like, “How in the world is that possible?” I was reading something during a break at work and had to take a moment to compose myself because of how terrible it was.
Matt,
May I refer you to this comic 🙂 http://cad-comic.com/comic/feels-amplified/
As a parent there’s a scene in AC: Origins that legit made me sad when I watched it.
Heavy. Rain.
Quite honestly when I saw this I knew the mashup, but my mind went to the backstabbing over the #metoo blowup in Hollywood right now. This was exactly what I was picturing happening with all of the outing of the folks who are using their power against others. But then I am also binging the Walking Dead at the moment too so that probably influenced my thinking quite a bit.
Nice to see a promise of continuity between the original and sequel… the trailer violence seemed right on par with much of the original as well as the faction discord. The only question unanswered is will they spoil the sequel with ridiculous new undead types?
Let’s see, the biggest pains were those that had been infected the longest, and we’re 5 years farther along… yes.
I don’t know why I feel compelled to point this out, but being a vet it was the first thing I noticed.
That AR-15 has no trigger or trigger guard.
I love you, your site, and everything you do in between. Been following for years and now I feel like a tool because this is my first comment. Oh well, F(#$* it. *fist bump*
Jer
I took a look, seems like his index finger is in front of the trigger guard.
It was definitely a lot of violence, but given that it’s likely closer to the beginning of the cordyceps outbreak and given it how crazy people can usually be, especially some religious cults, it doesn’t exactly surprise me either that some groups would be like that. I’m more wondering about the identity of the hanged woman and if she really is Ellie’s mother (like, Ellie finds out this is the group that killed her and that’s the them she was referring to in trailer one).
I’ve never played The Last of Us (not much of one for games like that) but this mashup is awesome. I love This Is Us!
Brilliant comic
So I understand that it’s a lot of violence in a short teaser, but it just seemed real to me. Think about it, best way to make sure someone can’t fight back while still being able to transport themselves? Break the elbows and they can’t throw a single punch. No room for damsels in distress in the world of The Last of Us, if they’re not just as brutal and tough as everyone else then they’re done for. It’s a world where young Ellie had to learn to protect herself by any means necessary, and I definitely get a strong… Read more »
While I can appreciate the effort put into the production, direction, and storyline of “This Is Us”, there is something that bugs me. A lot. It feels like emotion porn. It’s overly designed. It’s an emotional orgasm that’s over. I think in time that they’ll probably condense it into 3-5 minute clips. Your reaction to The Last of Us was the same as mine. It feels gratuitous and out of place, as if giving away that there is a ramping up of the violence factor and hoping we don’t notice. At the same time, this stuff is legit and goes… Read more »
Oh, I agree that ‘This Is Us’ is 100% manufactured for maximum feels, to the point where it feels almost like a fairy tale.
I’m so jaded by other programs always having characters “Do the wrong thing” or “Say the wrong thing” in order to create drama that then has to be addressed, that I’m constantly jarred by ‘This Is Us’s” repeated decision to have everyone do and say the RIGHT thing in the moment for the most possible feelsgoods.
Hey Tim,
This isn’t related to the comic, but my Next Quest Club poster arrived yesterday. Wanted to say thanks, I absolutely love it! Some of my friends were jealous too! Gonna grab a frame at the store for it today. It’s really well done!
Thanks, Austin! Glad to hear it!
Scissors bat… Do they expect to survive?
O.o
Last of us was so meh, i dont get whats so good about it is just a freaking 3rd person shooter with super high graphics resolution and walking dead kind of story, was so special? i beat the 1st one on very hard and it was tough but at the end of the day i didnt give a single fuck about anyone.
The first games trailer had a guy getting his head blown off and the game had the main character torturing 2 guys and that seemed all fine for everyone. Why is the violence in this trailer so different ???
I guess I agree in a way that maybe it was too grim to show at the end of the conference. It probably should have been put in the middle and then maybe lightened the mood with another game but i say that the violence is in tune with the rest of TLOU.
I don’t know which of the first game’s trailers you’re thinking of, but no matter which, the answer to your question is: Context. Yes, there was violence in the trailers for the first game. But in a way that clearly framed good guys vs bad guys, and alongside other footage that gave you a glimpse of the relationship between Ellie and Joel. In the debut trailer, Joel smashes a guy’s head in… but then there’s dialogue between him and Ellie, they scavenge for goods, and then the Clickers show up and they have to flee, at which point we see… Read more »
“Giant like to smash puny squishies”
Ya sorry I mistook the hitting seen in the first games trailer with shooting and I agree with the rest of what you said. I just came in here angry from reading other articles about how the new trailer somehow promotes beating women or something ridiculous so I was not thinking straight 🙁
Can you get rid of the pop up video advertisements on mobile? They eat my limited data and have actually cost me money, so it’s really starting to make me question when and how I view your comics.
Become a patron and use a mobile browser with built-in adblocker, such as Armorfly.
What does being a patron have to do with Adblock?
I’m not asking he remove ads, just the video ones and just from mobile.
Loved the artwork but the reference was so obscure, not one of your better ones.
I understand that it requires crossover knowledge of 2 properties to land, but I didn’t think it was THAT much of a stretch. ‘This Is Us’ has been the top television series in the 18-49 demographics for the past 2 years. Not exactly “obscure.”
Become a patron and use a mobile browser with built-in adblocker, such as Armorfly.
Not to say that your request is unreasonable though. Just that there are options.
Violent, yes. But not exactly unexpected. Given that in the first game two children die on screen, a man commits suicide, Joel shoots an unarmed woman begging for her life in the head, and then there was that torture session… And all the other things.
I don’t doubt Naughty Dog. I’ve never had to, they’ve never given me reason. Granted not everything they’ve made is gold, but it’s been damn close. I have zero reservations about them making good on the intense scene in the trailer.
Did…did you at all feel vindicated for killing someone off (that held tight to the heartstrings of so many odd, spontaneous individuals) in such a way as to be heroic to the audience, yet leaving a massive mystery in the lives of the other, surviving characters?
Asking for a friend.